SAVORY SAMPLE – Owner Adam O’campbell draws a taste of a red Zinfandel for a customer from his Winekeeper machine. “I think customers should have a chance to taste an unfamiliar wine they want to buy,” he said.

“Beer,” said Benjamin Franklin, “is living proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.”

Shoring up Franklin’s observation with mind-boggling product is Alan O’campbell, owner of Barnstable’s newest house of spirits, Grain and Vine Spirit Shoppe, 101 Iyanough Road (Route 28) in Hyannis, just west of the Yarmouth line.

Grain and Vine opened last month, followed by what O’campbell and night manager Matt la Vonture described as a “successful” open house a few weeks ago.

The Grain’s shelves in what used to be Capeside Liquors now hold more than 200 varieties and brands of beer that the owner wants to expand to 500, mostly from New England microbreweries and from elsewhere, including Scotland’s oldest ale…in addition to household national brands like Coors and Budweiser.

The growth of microbreweries, where experiments are producing a diversity of tastes for buffs of brews that carry names appropriate to just about every occasion or vocation, is expanding the choices in O’campbell’s liquid larder.

For the journalist, there’s a brew called “Censored” which is a “rich copper ale,” and there is one for the investor called “Turnbull” suitable for those getting back into the market. There is also “Old Godfather” that local mobsters can down with reverence and obedience; “Endurance” for the jogger limping to his or her goal, “Fisherman’s Ale,” which rhymes with a fibbing flycaster’s tale, “Xingu,” which is probably pronounced better after a few of this black beer and “Hooker” – for only the lonely.

While O’campbell’s beer stock is the most eclectic of his wares, he also carries lesser known but nonetheless appealing wines to go along with the interesting philosophy that recently brought him and his wife and two children to the Cape as year-round residents.

Son of a Navy father, he moved “up north” from Virginia when he was 19 and attended Salem State College to become a teacher. “I worked the graveyard shift at UPS and at some concessions in the summertime” until, through a working friend, he landed a job at Downtown Wine and Spirits in Somerville where his approach to sales and buying catapulted him up the career ladder.

“My first night of work there was New Year’s Eve, and I’ve got to say I got a true dose of what the spirit world was all about.” An observation of the workforce there led to his rise in the company.

“Nobody really knew much about the products and couldn’t answer customers’ questions. They sold beer by the bottle so I took it upon myself to create a new personal six-pack every week of some of the 150 brands carried there to learn about them. I would drink a beer a day, and every one different. Then I was able to talk about it with customers who weren’t familiar with all the brands.”

Once conversant about the myriad beer products O’campbell adapted the philosophy to wine, tasting various brands – “sometimes 15 or 20 wines a day” – so he could answer customer questions about them. “First they made me the buyer of beer, then the buyer of beer and wine, then as an all-around general manager” by the time he had finished 16 years of work there.

During that time O’campbell spent weekends and longer visiting his in-laws in Wellfleet. “As the years went by, we wanted to stay longer and longer. We finally started thinking of what we could do to earn a living on the Cape,” he said. The answer arrived one weekend on the wings of an offer to sell the former Capeside Liquors, with help from the Cape Cod Five. “We got in just under the wire, I guess,” he said.

Shelves holding hard liquor aren’t full yet while O’campbell concentrates on beer and wine, noting that he wants to introduce lesser-known products from U.S. wineries as the business develops.

“Many of the grapes brought from Europe are being grown here, and they change when they grow here – just like people,” with some adapting well and producing quality wines. “You’ve heard it all before, but this is where we are: commitment to knowledge, service and a fair price.”

Hours are 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday and noon to 6 p.m. Sunday. More information at www.grainandvine.com